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State: 34,000 pupils on charter-school wait lists

Sentinel & Enterprise

Updated:
02/18/2016 10:09:49 PM EST

By Katie Lannan

State House News Service

BOSTON -- Amidst the debate on whether to raise the maximum number of charter schools in the state, state education officials released updated figures Thursday showing nearly 34,000 students on wait lists for admittance into a charter school.

The new number from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is an update to an initial wait-list figure established last March that indicated 37,000 students were waiting to win a seat into charter schools -- publicly funded schools that operate under their own boards of trustees instead of local school committees.

The size of the wait list has become a flashpoint in the charter-school debate, with charter supporters often holding up the figure as evidence of high demand and critics referring to a 2014 report by State Auditor Suzanne Bump that found wait list numbers to be "significantly overstated."

The Education Department has made "significant and continuing improvement efforts" in developing wait-list totals, the statement announcing the new figures said.

"My staff and the charter-school sector have worked hard to ensure the accuracy of the wait list," Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester said. "I am confident that these numbers reflect parental and student demand for additional high-quality educational options.

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Using data from Oct. 1, the Education Department found that 74 of the state's 81 charter schools have a wait list, with 43,294 entries representing 33,903 students. Some students submit their names for more than one school's list.

There are 40,200 students in Massachusetts charter schools this school year, an Education Department spokeswoman said. On Tuesday, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education plans to vote on Chester's recommendation to approve two new charter schools and five expansions that would create an eventual total of 2,904 new seats.

The department's data for the 2015-16 school year shows a total of 953,429 students enrolled in public schools across the state.

Gov. Charlie Baker has been prominently advocating for expanding access to charter schools and filed legislation that would authorize up to 12 new charter schools a year.

"That would be a lot, to tell you the truth, in a single year," Baker acknowledged Thursday during an appearance on WGBH Radio.

"When you have 30,000 some-odd parents on a waiting list believing that this is the the best move for them and for their kids and with no options, I just don't think that's fair and especially in a state like ours which believes, as we should, in the power and importance of education and has done a pretty good job of educating kids for a really long time, you know, we should understand and recognize this and be willing to act on it," he said.

The release announcing the updated wait-list figure describes it as "impossible to quantify the exact number" of students actively awaiting charter-school admission. Not every student on the wait list would necessarily accept a seat if and when one was offered, the release said.

The size of the wait lists range from three students at the Sizer School in Fitchburg to 3,616 at the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School in Malden.

More than 85 percent of the students -- 29,070 -- are on wait lists for just one school. One student appears on 14 wait lists. Students who appear on multiple lists are only counted once, according to the department.

Charter advocates on Thursday said the updated wait-list numbers continue to point to a need to raise the cap on charter schools.

Marc Kenen, executive director of the Massachusetts Charter Public School association, called the list "appallingly long" and said it represented "overwhelming demand."

Eileen O'Connor, spokeswoman for Great Schools Massachusetts -- the group backing a ballot question that would raise the cap in a similar way as Baker's bill -- referred to the students as "trapped" on waiting lists and said it is "vital to lift the cap immediately and give all families access to the public school of their choice."

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